On the Sunday morning, the first day of the week, Sharath gave a Q&A session after practice. These are our notes from some of the more memorable bits:

Yoga is for relieving the suffering caused by the 6 poisons which surround each of our hearts. The 6 poisons are: Kama (lust); Krodha (anger); Moha (delusion); Lobha (greed); Matsarya (envy); Mada (sloth).

It’s recommended to practice 6 days a week but practising 4 days is better than 2 days which is better than not at all. But 6 days is recommended. If you make it part of your life then it won’t be something you feel you have to do, it’s simply something you do every day, like brushing your teeth. He said the asana practice is the foundation of your spiritual practice and the purpose is to make your body healthy. It’s very difficult to be spiritual if you’re not healthy in your body first.

Teaching yoga has become very difficult in the West as it’s become like $15 per posture, i.e. if you give your students more postures they’ll come back, but if you don’t they won’t. So some teachers just want to give students more and more postures. But he said it’s not about looking for more advanced postures, in fact it’s not about the asana at all. Whatever you’re doing is your practice. If you’re bringing up children they’re part of you so your children become your yoga.

“Yoga is within me. Wherever I am yoga happens.” (This was a defining moment for both of us and even though he said it as an almost throwaway comment, it really struck a chord.)

He said our practice will support many other things in our lives. We have to make many adjustments in our lives, e.g. when we have children. But we shouldn’t stop practising yoga.

He said Yoga is getting very fancy. People want to be very expressive and put their arms up like this (raised his arms in a very elaborate manner). He said it doesn’t matter how you put your arms up, just put them up!

When asked how long to leave it before practising again after having a baby and whether you should only do primary he said you should do whatever feels right, whenever you feel ready, even if this is 1 or 2 years. If you’re pregnant you can practice up to 8 months into your pregnancy, but no twists. After childbirth you should take at least a 3 month break. If you’ve had a ceasarian you should wait at least 6 months and be very careful.

He told a story of when he injured his shoulder when he was younger and he could feel something tearing inside. That afternoon he went to Guruji to tell him he couldn’t practice the next day but Guruji told him he’d volunteered him to give a demonstration. Sharath protested and said he couldn’t even breathe properly but Guruji told him to just do it. So the next day Sharath gave the demonstration which was very painful but once it had fully healed he actually had more flexibility and felt stronger so he could see the benefits of just getting on with the practice.

At the end of the last session he reminded us to keep practising and that places like London need Yoga. He said if we continue to practice with dedication and faith then knowledge will come easily to us.

Om shanti!

We’d been looking forward to John Scott’s evening workshops for some time, so it was with some considerable disappointment that we missed the first session due to the burst water pipe in Croydon which plunged the whole of the south east into complete chaos. Luckily we made it up to Stillpoint Yoga on the second evening and marvelled at the sheer size of the Shard building as we exited London Bridge station right underneath it.

We had no idea what to expect from the sessions, as we discovered John Scott is renowned for his casual approach to workshops, preferring to wing it on the day than plan every minute detail in advance – at least this is certainly how it came across. So as we sat in Starbucks across the road watching the organiser, Scott Johnson, and other excited yogis tucking into coffees, smoothies and sandwiches we found ourselves wondering whether there was going to be any asana practice at all. Once inside the studio, these concerns were further enhanced by a friend who told us the Monday evening session had consisted mainly of talking, pranayama and meditation.

But once the workshop got underway we quickly forgot about our worries as John’s gentle voice and inspiring words led us on a fascinating journey of exploration and discovery. He encouraged us to explore the physical development of a baby’s anatomy and experiment with how a baby finds its centre of gravity and learns to sit, knee and crawl. It was eye opening to realise how much strength it takes to make these tiny baby movements and how quickly this strength can be built up.

We progressed very gently through the surya namaskaras and some of the way through the standing sequence using these small but very focussed baby movements and it was astonishing to discover how much effort this required. He also asked us to join him in calling the Sanskrit count out loud whilst we were moving through the sequence, something which I’d never experienced before and found quite challenging, as coordination of the count, followed by the breath and movement was key. At the end of the session John gave a very inspiring speech about sharing yoga with others, with two memorable quotes being “every yoga class is teacher training” and “we teach others what we most need to learn ourselves”. Great stuff!

On the Wednesday evening we were expecting more of the same but were in for a shock! Apparently Scott had told John to “give them one tonight” so it was a much more physical asana session. However, rather than merely count through the primary series, this was a led class with a difference. John incorporated many of the movements we’d learnt the night before so that he’d lead us gently from one baby movement to the next, then say “now just lean forward and see if you can move your arm this way” and before we knew it we all found ourselves happily sitting in Marichyasana A without quite knowing how we’d got there – and letting out an audible “aah” of realisation! We found ourselves moving into many of the postures this way, which provided a uniquely different perspective than simply launching straight in to the full pose as we so often do normally.

John brought a great deal of humour and humility to the sessions and I found myself fascinated and inspired by all he had to say. He has a very gentle, yet very solid and dedicated approach to the practice and I could quite happily listen to him talk about yoga all day! It was a shame we only got to practice twice with him but it was definitely worth it and both Guy and I are already eagerly anticipating our next opportunity to practice with him – whether that’s in New Zealand, the UK or beyond!

I’d like to thank Scott and Oz for their hospitality and for putting on such a great workshop. Their studio, Stillpoint Yoga, is a lovely big space fantastically located right next to London Bridge station and it was great to finally practice there with them.

Om shanti

Hannah and Guy

This last week has seen the biggest change to my practice in years!

Last Saturday my teacher Sarah took myself and 4 others to practice with her teacher – Denise Martin-Harker. Denise is an old student of John Scott and studies with Manju Jois hosting him when he comes to the UK. She also runs an Ashtanga teacher training progamme. I’m interested in doing her teacher training after the last course that I signed up to fell through.

I’ve met her a few times before when she’s been down in Brighton when Manju visits, normally around September time. She has an amazing practice and she’s really insightful. Our time with her was very much workshop style self practice and she prescribed us each with a different practice and gave us homework.

I didn’t get very far into the practice before she stopped me – at dve the 2nd position in the first sun salutation and gave me new instructions about positioning my hands further forward. I was slightly bemused by this quick intervention. She also got most of us do do a split primary and intermediate – practicing up to Supta Kurmasana and then going onto intermediate up until Ustrasana in my case. I’d never done this before so it made for an interesting change.

the new way

I’d always assumed that I’d do a traditional split which would mean practicing all of standing, primary and intermediate up to at least Eka pada sirsasana. Obviously for me it’s going to take many years and well over two hours each morning. So I’m open to trying this alternative route. On the way back I asked Sarah about how it would work. It’s a two day split – on the first day you do the sequence that I mentioned above. the next day you do standing and then start at Navasana and practice through until Ustrasana.

The second split is actually deceptively difficult. It’s shorter but I find that I’m not sufficiently warmed up to get into Kurmasana and Supta Kurmasana without help from Sarah. The first split is also rather challenging because you go from Supta Kurmasana which is the peak of primary series straight into Pashasana which is also requires great strength and flexibility. But hey I’m not complaining.

Last week was the first full week that I did this new split and as expected it was very hard work. It’s great to be working on all the back bends at the beginning of intermediate every day. I’m surprised by how hard I find the postures, particularly Salabhasana. By Thursday I got as far as Marichyasana C before I ground to a halt on the mat with exhaustion. I went home early that afternoon and went straight to sleep. Friday morning I slept in and had a good primary series practice in the evening.

A tough but rewarding week with more to follow. I’m expecting that it’ll take my body around 4 – 6 weeks to adjust to this new regime. I have to say I’m grateful for the challenge and the change.

Awakening the body

Here it is! At last the final part of Kino’s asana demo. My closing thoughts on Kino’s workshop are that it takes years for the body to awaken in certain areas. This process first starts with awareness and is developed over a period of time. The length of time it takes for the body to fully awaken will depend on the amount of effort put into the practice and one’s samskaras. The layers that need to be swept away from past lives. Whether or not you believe in past lives is irrelevant, what is relevant is that we all are given a body and mind with which we can use as tools for personal transformation.

Becoming proficient at asana practice

The question on the tip of many tongues when watching Kino practice is ‘How long does it take to get ‘good’ at an asana?’ Her response when she asked Guruji was ‘you take it 1000 times!’ My quote there not Guruji’s. He apparently modified this to ’1000 times, correctly’. Kino suggested that for most people more repetition is required closed to 10, 000 times. So that’s a lot of years.

With this in mind I’m reminded of one of David Swenson’s quotes ‘Don’t let yoga ruin your life’. So maybe it will become a long time to become proficient at asana practice, it’s really important we enjoy it today and every day. Find the devotion and love and immerse yourself in it.